The invention relates to an earthquake-resistant replaceable or removable partition for sealing an opening formed in a vertical wall and more particularly in a wall of a room containing radioactive material.
In nuclear plants, accesses to rooms containing radioactive materials are generally sealed by partitions formed by a dry stack (without mortar) of concrete bricks.
Whilst still ensuring the continuity of protection against the radiation emitted by the radioactive material located within the room, said partitions make it possible to intervene within the room in the case of need, as a result of their dismantlable nature.
The dimensions of the opening sealed by these removable partitions vary as a function of whether they are intended to permit the passage of a person or equipment. In the first case, the dimensions are generally 1 m.times.1.80 m. In the case of an opening for the passage of equipment, the dimensions of the openings can be up to 5 m.times.4 m.
Like all elements of buildings in nuclear plants, these removable partitions are designed so that they are able to withstand the effects of an earthquake when this is made necessary by the safety analysis.
In the present state of the art, the bricks forming the removable partitions are generally in the form of rectangular parallelepipeds with planar faces. The resistance to horizontal forces of inertia perpendicular to the partition and which can be produced by an earthquake is obtained by placing a retaining framework on either side of the stack of bricks. As a function of the particular case, this framework is constituted by a general sheet metal plating or by a checkerwork of metal sections.
However, these known removable partitions suffer from a certain number of disadvantages. Firstly, the cost thereof is high, because the price of the retaining framework can be greater than that of the stack of bricks. Furthermore, access to the room is made difficult by the retaining framework, whose removal must be added to that of the stack of bricks. Finally, the presence of a retaining framework within the room makes decontamination more difficult, particularly when said framework is formed from sections. Thus, the decontamination process is made more difficult when the wall of the structure to be decontaminated is not smooth.
FR-A No. 1 232 638 discloses a partition formed from bricks, whose shape makes it possible to provide the necessary radiation protection. The bricks are mutually sealed and traversed by vertical and horizontal metal bars forming a reinforcing structure ensuring the resistance to earthquakes. However, it is not possible to dismantle this partition.
The present invention consequently relates to an earthquake-resistant, removable partition of a noval type, which does not suffer from the aforementioned disadvantages of prior art removable partitions.